Review of Paprika

Paprika is hard to understand. I would say it is easier to not understand, by extension, throughout the whole film and even after, you need to think what is happening. And eventually, you will probably overlook some details. But despite the complexity the movie became quite successful and also affect the anime in general. As I could somehow understand there are two main themes: mixing fantasy and the real world and lack of self-confidence. And the immense amount of time is dedicated to the first one. On top of that, the second theme is easy to understand in contrast to the first one and henceall your attention will be concentrated on mixing theme simply to understand. And there is occurring the question if you agree or disagree with the fact that you couldn't tell imagination apart from reality. If you do, then you will definitely like this film, otherwise you will feel the same that I felt. I simply don't agree with this on a personal level. And aside from technical aspect, there remains almost nothing to enjoy. The lack of self-confidence theme isn't elaborated enough. The characters and the villain are pretty interesting though. But it's also not enough to compensate the disagreement with the main theme.

The cinematography is amazing. The mixing of reality and imagination is done perfectly. The visual and animation is still good despite airing in 2006. There isn't much ost tracks, but every of them is pretty solid, especially opening. The best way to describe the technical aspect: it is like Perfect Blue but even better.

If I need to reduce the review to one world it will be hit-or-miss. On the one hand we have perfectly executed movie, but on the other hand the dissonance with author's outlook. And I can't call either of these things unimportant, let alone just brush them off.